STEM Activities for Christmas

It’s always fun to integrate the holidays and seasons into what you teach or the playful learning activities that are available for your kids or students to explore, which is why I love seasonal STEM and engineering challenges.

Plans for a Better Tomorrow has a great series (that’s ongoing right now, but you can see the basics of each idea on this post) of winter/Christmas STEM challenges, in which students are given supplies to make a specific thing, such as the tallest snowman or a fortress made out of marshmallows that can best withstand attack. So fun and clever!

Le Chaim on the Right has a great collection of 25 days of Christmas STEM ideas collected from around the Internet, and there’s a lot of fun stuff there. My daughter’s class did dissolving candy canes the other day and they all thought it was really cool. There’s also a snow storm in a jar, forming crystals on a Christmas tree, tinkering trees, Christmas light experiments for older kids and much more.

I’m certainly adding some of these to the list of winter break activities to have on hand for the girl!

[Photo via Le Chaim on the Right.]

Check out these Science Activity books

It is important to teach STEAM to children because it helps them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. STEM learning also helps children understand how the world works and how to apply that knowledge to real-world situations.

One of the most important benefits of STEAM learning is that it helps children develop critical thinking skills. STEM learning is all about finding creative solutions to problems, and this type of thinking is essential in today’s ever-changing world.

Another benefit of STEM learning is that it helps children understand how the world works. By understanding how scientific and mathematical concepts work, children can better understand the world around them. This knowledge can then be applied to real-world situations, such as environmental issues or designing a new product.

Finally, STEM learning is interesting and engaging for children. It helps them to see the world in a different way and to think about problems in new and innovative ways. This type of learning can spark a child’s curiosity and creativity, and lead to a lifelong love of learning.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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